It took us a while to save up the outrageous fees and required services (more than $1000 w/o an attorney) to apply for her Green Card, so we filed for her residency at the end of 2000.  About this time our 2nd son was concieved, so during this next sequence of events she is pregnant.  At the time I have the best-paying job I've ever had, so we pass the income requirements for the application (that's right... if you are too poor, YOU CANNOT GET A GREEN CARD, no matter who your spouse is!)

In February 2001 we recieved a letter for her to show up for an appointment to get her work permit.  The appointment was for the day BEFORE we recieved the letter.  We sent a letter to the INS (no phone numbers to call!), and they sent us another appointment for March.

At that interview she gets a one-year work permit, which entitles her to a valid Social Security number.  We are told that there will be an interview appointment in 3-6 months, that we'll get a letter before the interview with the details (date, time, location and what to bring).

Nothing happens.  In September I a national 800 number to find out what's going on.  They have no information on my case, and "there are no phones in the Oklahoma City office, where your case is being handled."  As an aside - WTF?  Am I really expected to believe that a government office has NO PHONES?  Obviously they simply refuse to take calls... I wonder why?  They inform me that they will send me a letter updating me on the status of my wife's case.

The letter arrives (in November)... the status?  Glad you asked!  Our appointment was in JULY and we didn't appear, so we have clearly abandoned my wife's case.  She has 30 days from the date of the letter to leave the country, or she will be barred from the US for 10 YEARS.

We try to call, we file an appeal, we call our Senator... nope, nothing.  We did nothing wrong, she's due in December,  but if she doesn't leave then the INS will bar her from the US.

Of course she doesn't leave.  We have to get an attorney, go through a long expensive court battle.  Why so long... because our 'file' was always sitting on someone's desk for MONTHS AT A TIME because some prick at the INS didn;t do his/her job.  Our attorney manages to squeeze more than $3000 out of us during this period.  What do we get?  The chance to do the WHOLE THING OVER AGAIN!  Including paying the fees we already paid.

Only now I am in school and my financial aid doesn't count for their purposes, so we are too poor to apply.  Of course my wife is fed up with this; she no longer really wants to live here, after being treated like a stray dog with fleas by my country.

I graduate, and can undoubtedly get a job that will qualify us (I'm an engineer, after all).  But now, after seeing all of this, and the immigration 'controversy' and everything, I'm more than a little turned off by my own country.

I want to be treated with diginity and respect.  I love my wife, and so do our sons... if she's banned from this country, so are we!  The immigration laws AREN'T EVEN FOLLOWED BY THE IMMIGRATION EMPLOYEES.  They sit on your application for no reason.  When they screw up, the APPLICANT is at fault no matter who made the error.  Appeals are so tightly constrained so as to be  of trivial value (I'll give you a hint... if there isn't an exclusive clause specifically for your case situation, you CANNOT change the decision, no matter how insane you situation is).

So here we are... me, my wife, and our two sons are probably emmigrating to Venezuela.  Why... it's JUST TOO HARD to get a simple, legitimate, 7-year marriage with two children past the immigration system.  Too expensive... I'd rather live in Venezuela under the presidency of Hugo Chavez (a real progressive) than G. W. Bush (a real dictator).  I don't want to be in a country that has treated me like this, even if it's my own.

If we leave now (family medical issues are also present in Venezuela) she will be barred from the U.S. for 10 years.  SHe's basically been an illegal during this whole tordeal.

This all started because of an INS fuck-up.  Every step of the way we have been delayed by INS ineptitude or outright not doing their fucking job.  Everytime someone screwed up, WE had to pay more money... INS fees, doctor examination fees, fingerprint fees, attorney fees, INS doctor and fingerprint fees again!!

My Senators have been useless.   My attorney has used me as an ATM, and the INS has been alternatingly malevolent and apathetic.

So when I hear people saying "Well they broke the law..." I just want to smack them in their stupid-ass mouth!  There is NO WAY to follow the law, because it's a big fucking mess of people whose clients have no legal rights, and when they don't do their job there are no consequences.

This whole immigration controversy is offensive to me.  To draw it in black and white as 'illegal' or 'not illegal' fails to look at the fact that the government side doen't hold up it's end of the bargain, so 'illegal' is just stupid.  Let's deport the immigration employees, how 'bout that?  They are the one's responsible for much of this mess, anyway.